Using these programs

As presently formulated, there is only one REC demonstration, designed to show off the Chaté-Manneville Swiss cheese, to which the program has been initialized. After loading the program, a Copyright Notice will be displayed long enough for recognition and the first keypress. Normally the delay would be used to randomize the startup demonstration, which makes no difference here.

The main menu shows up in text mode; it may be passed over by typing t to get to the probabilistic menu, or one may linger over such things as the REC menu and editor, or the definition of a rule. To get directly to the demonstration, type t followed by f5. Having tired of the demonstration, it can be halted (say by typing carriage return) and other aspects of the program explored. Thereafter use REC demonstration #2 rather than #3 to avoid losing new rule numbers, or use #3 to go back to the original demonstration.

To quit from the probability menu, which incidentally is a graphics screen, type carriage return followed by q. Otherwise use q from the main menu.

Since an investigation of the conflict between totalistic rules and mean field theory is the principal objective of this series of programs, there are many options which vary the dimension of the automaton, as well as the degree of randomness in the connections of a one dimensional automaton. There is just one REC demonstration (number 4) which assesses the relation between neighborhood frequency and cell frequency by jointly plotting the return map and a contour map showing the fit between the two as equilibrium density and percent admixture are varied.

Otherwise, one must have a background in the issues involved, and consult the source listings, to derive further information from the programs. The easiest place to begin is by varying the underlying rule, which can still be done while the program is running.

---

Harold V. McIntosh
E-mail:mcintosh@servidor.unam.mx